The Temptation of Forgiveness

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When Anna Maria Giusti returns from holiday to find her elderly neighbour Constanza Altavilla dead, with blood on the floor near her head, she immediately alerts the police. Commissario Brunetti is called to the scene and it seems the woman has suffered a fatal heart attack. Patta, the Vice-Questore, is eager to dismiss the case as a death from natural causes, but Brunetti believes that there is more to it.

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A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery

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Donna Leon

Narrated by:
Andrew Sachs

Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins

Abridged

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21

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Overall

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But once Brunetti begins investigating this Venetian underworld, he discovers that matters of great value are at stake within the immigrant society. Warned by Patta, his superior, to resist further involvement in the case, Brunetti only becomes more determined to unearth the truth behind this mysterious killing. How far will Brunetti be able to penetrate the murky subculture of Venice's illegal community?

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Summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon, read by David Sibley.

When important information is leaked from inside the Venetian Questura, Commissario Guido Brunetti is entrusted with the task of uncovering which of his colleagues is responsible. But before Brunetti can begin his investigation, he is surprised by the appearance in his office of a friend of his wife's, who is fearful that her son is using drugs. A few weeks later, Tullio Gasparini, the woman's husband, is found unconscious with a serious head injury at the foot of a bridge, and Brunetti is drawn to pursue a possible connection to the boy’s behaviour. But the truth is not straightforward.

Following various contradictory leads, Brunetti navigates his way through a world of mysterious informants, underground deals and secret longstanding scam networks, all the while growing ever more impressed by the intuition of his fellow Commissario, Claudia Griffoni, and by the endless resourcefulness of Signorina Elettra, Vice-Questore Patta’s secretary and gatekeeper.

With Gasparini’s condition showing no signs of improvement and his investigations leading nowhere, Brunetti is steadied by the embrace of his own family and by his passion for the classics. He turns to Sophocles’ Antigone in an attempt to understand the true purpose of justice, and, in its light, he is forced to consider the terrible consequences to which the actions of a tender heart can lead.

As good as the all the Brunetti series

I like Donna Leon and have read all the Brunetti series. This one doesn't disappoint and has all the likeable and not-so-likeable characters from the rest of the series. Fortunately she doesn't rely on previous stories and the history of the characters and all the books stand nicely on their own so one can dip into them as and when.

Book 27

homework needed

As always Donna Leon's settings and characters are excellent, but the narrator's pronunciation of quite basic Italian words is flawed which becomes irritating. Perhaps he could do some homework on this ....

Forgiveness

Donna Leon is such a compassionate and intuitive writer and I adore her hero.... This story was as usual quite excellent, but I was so disappointed in Brunetti's final decision... no spoiler alert here. It's just that his action or rather non action reflected the title's premise but not Bruneti's essential goodness and compassion. He wasn't punishing the right person by his inaction and it seemed so unlike the character I have come to see as a shining light of the quite impossible balance of pragmatism and humanity.

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Overall

3 out of 5 stars

Performance

2 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Amazon Customer

23-01-19

optional?

good story..miss earlier reader with Italian accent..there must other readers with Italian heritage. nice insight